Police Dispatch

A passenger trashed the interior of a taxicab and then flogged the cab with a bike chain when he got out, according to a Pima County Sheriff's Department report.

A deputy patrolling the foothills was called to a neighborhood where a taxi driver had pulled over. The driver said he'd picked up two people at a Walmart. But when they neared the couple's residence, the driver said, the male passenger told him not to drive to the house, but instead to drive laps around it. After a few turns through the neighborhood, the man started calling the driver a "faggot," and began laughing.

The driver said that when he stopped the cab, the man became increasingly obnoxious. He tore up the driver's beverage cup and started throwing the driver's personal papers around the cab and even out a window. He finally got out of the cab and then started hitting the car with a bike chain and his fist, screaming "Fuck" and drawing nearby residents from their houses to watch.

The driver said that throughout the incident the female passenger was quiet and polite, and paid the fare before leaving the cab.

Deputies located the man at his home, and noted they'd had contact with him before. The man calmly signed a citation for suspicion of disorderly conduct, thanked the deputies and wished them a nice day.

TOUGH-TALKING 'MOBSTER'

LA CHOLLA BOULEVARD

AUG. 29, 4:32 P.M.

A man threatened to bring his shotgun to a medical facility if staffers there did not release his elderly father, who was being treated for a urinary tract infection, a PCSD report stated.

A deputy responded to the Life Care Center of Tucson, 6211 N. La Cholla Blvd., where staff members were treating the father.

They said the man's son had been calling nurses and demanding to be allowed to pick up his father, notwithstanding the patient's wish to stay.

One nurse said that when she refused to release the father, the son said he would bring a shotgun to the facility because long before, when had returned from service in Vietnam, his father had defended him with a shotgun against war protesters who might spit on him. The son said he now wanted "to return the favor" (though the connection between that anecdote and his father's situation was unclear).

When a deputy phoned the son, he told the deputy he had changed his name because he was a mobster in Chicago and didn't want anyone to learn his identity. The deputy said the son spoke as if he were intoxicated.

The son eventually said he would stop harassing the people treating his father and apologized for the incident.